JohnnyChaos

BA and a few other supervisors got floured and egged outside. There was a big bake off with loads of games to play and in the end everyone raised nearly £4000 So pretty good

my work had a charity fund raising day for comic relief today. It was announced in a group meeting that there would be a stormtrooper so I didn't have much choice in the matter It went down real well though. Shame most just wore Onesies, but a few made an effort. I took it off at lunch or I wasn't going to get any work done! .. shame I don't have a proper blaster yet... but I did have my ROMFX installed so was a good test run of that.

I was going to go the doopy Hasbro upgrade for my first blaster but the parts have gone missing in the post so figure i'll 3D model more ROTJ specific parts and print them out at work. Before I start has anyone else made anything I can use? Thanks

Id say point 6 should be to start your wip on your garrison website.

I used a hair dryer on mine. Squeeze it into shape and heated along the edge I needed to curve more.

looks good.. looks like you're able to use all the original overlaps.. definitely don't follow my build. I had to use a lot of the excess material and heat bend it flat... and that's on every single arm and leg section

Thanks man. I did yeah. Looks like my neck seal wasn't quite tucked in

Thighs finished so hopefully armour finished... The thighs don't look massively higher on my legs, but definitely look and feel better and I can stride about in comfort now

Just got the shipping notice for my Hasbro kit. Its taken about 3 weeks. I did send an email but didn't get a reply which I see is normal. Its not good enough really. I got mine off his ebay. Just a quick email to say its going to be delayed is all that's needed.

I made a neck seal today. Just need to pickup some Velcro for the join in the material down the back tomorrow. It has a u shape section cut out of the front for comfort. Thighs are getting glued now. I should be able to take final pics tomorrow of the (hopefully) finished armour.

Thanks So far so good. Started sanding back the seam. You can see the start of it near my thumb where it's still fairly rough. The very top edge will be trimmed as well. I'll be waiting till it's all back together before buffing it back up to a shine.

started the thighs.... please excuse the awful pics. didn't realise how bad they were until I got on the PC. first job.. try to get rid of the extra ridge which would normally be cut off. I clamped along the edge to keep it from warping, and heated along with a hair-dryer. It only takes a minute or two to warm up and instantly started to flatten out. after quite a bit more work repositioning the clamps and trying to flatten it out as best as I could, this is as good as I could get it. It's a lot less noticeable now and matches the other leg better. The pic on the right shows the first extra V section in place. I wet both edges with solvent cement paste first like my test in the post above, which softens the plastic (glad I kept a load of offcuts now). After a few seconds I pushed the new bit onto the thigh edge.. I'm looking for it to ridge up slightly all the way along the seam to show it's pushed up flush to the other part and so should sand back without any gaps. (you can just about make out the ridge) Now I just need to wait until the morning when I can sand it.

I'm a 3D artist for an international packaging company and a licensed tattoo artist…. so busy busy.

I'll do another test and give that ago. I figured that pre softening both edges would help smooth out any bits that didn't match up properly and avoid having an indented seam

Last night I started a little test using solvent cement to soften the edges of two bits of armour off cuts, after they were softened enough I pushed them together and ran a third bit down the seam to smooth out the resulting ridge. Once it was dry I've sanded it smooth. It's as solid as a single piece and definitely proved it's a viable solution for extending my thigh to close up the "V" shape..

Anything else you'd recommend Mark?

Right.. time to tackle these thighs…. this is how much extra material I've had to keep and how much of a V shape gap I'd be left with that needs to be hidden. This brings them up to my butt cheek and keeps a more snug fit at the bottom edge as well. it's a shame about the extra definition on the left thigh ridges. I should be able to flatten out that inner ridge so there's only one on that side, like I did on the right thigh which would improve the look a lot. another option would be to cut all the extra material out and add in a smooth bit under the gap. so cut all this out which would result in this.. which is obviously a lot more inaccurate. but does it look better? I'm not sure.. I guess I'll try flattening out the inner ridge on the left thigh, and then try to extend that edge to close up that V shape first and see how I go.

Thanks man. Looks like I'm going to have to add a bit of a shim. I'll pull the back of the thighs apart and work out how much extra I need. It's probably only going to have to be a small v shaped bit towards the top. Maybe only a couple of CM at it's widest part.. We shall see.

Went to my local comic-con today. Only spent a couple of hours there, if that. Had to get off. Come away with a nasty cut on the back of my left leg and some sore marks on my arms so it definitely needs work. My little boy dressed as Spider-Man. No inside pics. It was all too busy and cramped..

actually looking at the pics a bit closer, I think if I added a bit of foam padding inside the thigh on the outer edge it would help center them and make them look a lot better

the overlap on that side has more defined edges so maybe looks bigger than the other but they're pretty much the same size. I could taper them in at the bottom more, but can't trim anything from them really. I only have about 5mm overlap at the top and 3-4cm at the bottom. i could trim the bottom narrower but id be worried about losing a bit more mobility though so not sure. all the strapping was from Mark, that should be ok shouldn't it?

thanks guys. Im using some straps and a belt but they're as high as they'll go given how thick my thighs are. They're also glued with minimal overlap at the top edge to give me as much room as possible..

Right... this is the armour finished (plastic parts anyway) and my first full test fit. I think my thighs could do to come up a bit, but to do that I'd need to shim them. I don't think they look awful, but think they would look better and give me more manoeuvrability if I did. What do you guys think... would it be preferable to leave them or shim them?? (not that I have any shims). I've also got an indent on the under edge of my inner knees from the calves. I was only in it for about 15min so could see that would get very painful on a troop.. Going to try and trim the edges on those. Anything else?

I'd have a look at compression gear at Sports Direct. Their Under Armour has been on sale recently. I got a cheaper brand as they were out of black under armour and just have a logo to sharpie out.. although it'll be covered by the neck seal once I get that.

Not much progress.. still waiting for a couple of things to arrive inc my boots (which just arrived apparently). The TD clips were bugging me. they looked simple to make, but was struggling to find some strips of metal. Thankfully tonight I managed to find some aluminium strips in my local wickes and made some. The ROTJ CRL says The total length should be approximately 7.50" (190.5mm). The thermal detonator is attached via metal or metallic-appearing clips approximately 1/2" (12.7mm) to 3/4" (19mm) wide. I seem to have more pipe showing than some, but it's pretty much the right length as you can see… give or take a few mm. The clips also seem quite narrow compared to some, but I chose 15mm which is within the requirements. There was 19.5, but I figured as I was bending these by hand a bit narrower would be better. The end caps aren't glued, but are a very tight fit.